recipe: roasted vegetable pot pie

I'm hosting my first Easter dinner tomorrow and I'm cooking up individual veggie pot pies for everyone! I decided to do a test-run of my recipe to make sure it would be peak delicious, and so I would have time to tweak anything that needed to be changed before I make the actual dinner tomorrow. One great thing about this recipe is that you can make the filling the day beforehand, and refrigerate it. So that will cut my actual cooking time on Easter in half! I also did my test-run with pre packaged pie crust but tomorrow I'll be using my mom's homemade crust recipe, which I'm including below.

This came out exactly how I wanted it to. The roasted vegetables make this different from a normal pot pie, but it still has the kind of classic comfort food feeling that I was going for. I think this will definitely be my go-to recipe for Easter every year now!

I wanted to make sizable individual pies, so I used these 24oz baking dishes. This recipe will make six 24oz pot pies.

Vegetables
1 bag of carrot sticks
2 large zucchini
2 pounds asparagus
2 bags of frozen green beans
2 leeks (white and light green parts only)
2 pounds of potatoes, skin on
1 pound of sweet potatoes, skin on
1 c. corn
1 head of garlic

First chop all of your fresh vegetables and garlic into small bite sized pieces. Toss them with a little olive oil and sea salt and then roast at 400' for 30 minutes. I pre-microwaved my potatoes and my frozen green beans and corn before roasting them so that they were fully cooked before going in the oven to get crispy.

Filling
3 c. vegetable broth
6 tbsp. flour (or corn starch)
1/2 tsp. tarragon
1/2 tsp. parsley
pink sea salt to taste

Whisk the ingredients for the filling on low/medium heat in a saucepan until the mixture starts to thicken. Keep stirring so that it doesn't get clumpy! When it's nice and thick, take it off the heat and mix it with all of your roasted vegetables. Then fill your baking dishes with the mixture.

Crust
1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. oil
3 tbsp. water

Mix flour, salt, and oil and then add water. Combine to form your pastry dough and then roll out. I cut out my crusts by placing an empty baking dish on top of the dough and tracing around the circle with a butter knife. Then just use a fork to create ridges along the edge of the pie crust in the baking dish.

Bake for 20 minutes in a 400' oven and let cool before enjoying!



I'm also making a gluten free crust for my Grandmom, who has Celiac. This is the recipe for the pie crust that I make for her:

Gluten Free Crust
2c. gluten free flour
4 tbsp. melted coconut oil
1 egg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. water

It's difficult to roll this out so I just sort of piece it together. But it tastes very close to the real thing!

recipe: my favorite snack

Earlier this year I got a free trial for one of those subscription snack boxes and I really loved it, but there was no way I could actually afford to keep getting it delivered. So I decided to come up with my own snack mix to have on hand whenever I get the munchies! Each week I just mix up a batch and store it in a tupperware container.



I don't know if this can even really be called a "recipe" since the instructions are so simple. I just take one bag of glazed walnuts (if you like the taste of plain walnuts definitely go that route since they're healthier!), one bag of dried cranberries, and one bar of dark chocolate broken up into small chunks. If you're looking for healthy dark chocolate, the higher the percentage of chocolate, the better. I got this one because it was on sale, but my favorite is the Theo 70% dark chocolate/sea salt bar.

I love this combination so much that I have to put a portion into a small bowl to snack on rather than dipping my hand into the container, or else I get "where did that whole bag of doritos go?!" syndrome. It disappears before I even realize it! It's just so good!

recipe: chocolate covered strawberry smoothie

I've been having a smoothie every morning this year, and this week I was in the mood for something a little extra delectable and decided to forgo my normal fruit-and-ginger concoction for something with chocolate! This literally tasted like a chocolate covered strawberry, it was so yummy! Also, sidenote, I have a really hard time swallowing pills and making a daily smoothie to take them with has helped tremendously. It's thick enough that I can't really tell the pill is in my mouth, which makes it a lot easier to swallow it. I know it might not work for everyone but if you have the same problem I recommend trying this :)

To make the smoothie, just blend together a handful of frozen strawberries, half of a bar of dark chocolate (I used a 78% cacao bar), 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1/4 c. unsweetened coconut milk, 1/4 c. cold water, and 2 ice cubes. Add honey to taste. (I like mine a little on the not-too-sweet side!)

recipe: quick spanish rice with sun dried tomato polenta

I was in the mood for a paella-esque dish the other day but really didn't feel like taking the time to make it. My go-to recipe (from my favorite cookbook, The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen) is very time consuming and it uses arborio rice which dilly dallies and takes all day to soak up broth. I also wanted to add something with a little bit of crunch and flavor for a vegan chorizo substitute and I'm so glad I decided to try sun dried tomato polenta! All in all this dish was done in about 20 minutes but it tasted like I had spent hours slaving over a hot stove.

Ingredients for the rice:

1 bag frozen brown rice
1 c. vegetable broth
1/4 tsp. saffron threads
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, grated
4 tsp. minced garlic
1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
2 c. frozen baby lima beans
1 c. frozen green peas
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. smoked paprika
scallions
1 lemon

Start out by microwaving your frozen rice according to the directions on the bag. Meanwhile, combine the saffron and vegetable stock in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile still, heat up the olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion and garlic until it's making your house smell AMAZING.

After the onion and garlic have softened, add the peppers (I specify a yellow pepper and a red pepper just for the sake of making the dish pretty - if you can only get one color it'll still taste the same!) and sauté until they're soft. Then add the cooked rice, the soy sauce, the paprika, and a little salt and pepper. Stir it all together to combine and then add the frozen lima beans and the saffron-infused broth. Let everything cook, stirring occasionally, until the broth is all gone. While it's cooking, you can whip up your sun dried tomato polenta:



Ingredients for the polenta:

1 package of sun dried tomato polenta
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. smoked paprika

In a small bowl, combine extra virgin olive oil with smoked paprika. Cut the polenta into round slices, as thin as you can get them, and then brush each side with the paprika olive oil marinade. Heat in a skillet over medium heat until they start to get crispy. Make sure to flip them over and cook both sides!

When everything is done, just squeeze a bit of lemon juice on top of the rice, top with polenta and some chopped up scallions, and enjoy! I love that this was still super flavorful and packed with so many good veggies, too! It's one of those meals where it feels like you're being indulgent but it's actually incredibly healthy :)

recipe: strawberry coconut ginger smoothie

I decided to start my mornings with a smoothie this year (mostly because I have a large probiotic to take each morning that I can only swallow with something as thick as a smoothie, lol!) and this concoction is SO delicious! Plus it's dairy free, and the ginger adds an anti-inflammatory benefit, too!

1 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 tsp. grated (or powdered) ginger
1 tsp. raw honey
2 ice cubes

Just blend it all together in your blender, and then enjoy! This makes a pretty sizable smoothie which is perfect for a "meal in a cup" situation but if you just want something refreshing to drink, you might want to halve the recipe.

recipe: chocolate chip cookies

When me and my brother were younger, my parents would always do their Christmas shopping in one day and I'd watch my brother while they were out. I always tried to make it a fun festive day, where we'd surprise our parents with new decorations or fresh cookies. We haven't done anything like that since he grew up but when they went out shopping last week I asked if he'd be up for getting Chinese take-out and making cookies! Since it was very spur-of-the-moment we didn't have a lot of baking supplies and had to make a couple substitutions but, magically, they were the best batch of chocolate chip cookies we've ever made. So those substitutions are now part of our permanent recipe, presented below :)



Ingredients:
2 1/3 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. melted unsalted butter
1/2 c. melted coconut oil
3/4 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375'

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine butter, oil, vanilla, and eggs. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet mixture until it's combined. Then add chocolate chips and scoop out tablespoon-fuls onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving to wire racks. Enjoy!

Recipe: Three healthy Thanksgiving recipes

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I'm sticking with my anti-inflammatory diet (what fun would a holiday be if I spent all night with an upset stomach?) and I thought I'd share the recipes I used for three of my healthy courses. I'm also making mashed roasted cauliflower (just steam-in-the-bag roasted cauliflower mashed with vegetable broth and roasted garlic) and seared salmon for my main course.

Keep reading for recipes for Pumpkin Custard (dairy-free, gluten-free, and nut-free!), Hazelnut Wild Rice Salad, and Cranberry Apple Relish (recipe courtesy of my mom!)



Cranberry Apple Relish
My mom has been making this for years and recently switched up the recipe to make it fit my anti-inflammatory diet, which was so sweet of her! My family eats pretty healthy for the most part, so it's pretty simple to make mostly-healthy recipes (fruit and sugar) into much-healthier recipes (fruit and maple syrup.)

You'll need:

1 orange
1 medium apple (my mom suggests gala or fuji)
3 c. fresh cranberries
3/4 c. maple syrup
1 Tbsp water

Grate zest from whole orange. Cut off any remaining pith from orange. Cut orange into chunks. Peel, core, and cut apple into large pieces. Combine everything in a food processor until finely chopped - but not mushy. Stir in maple syrup and water. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.



Pumpkin Custard
This is just like eating pumpkin pie without the crust! My Grandmom has Celiac so custard has been a Thanksgiving staple ever since she was diagnosed about 20 years ago. This year I adapted this recipe I found online so that it's not only gluten free but anti-inflammatory as well. And I made sure to use coconut milk (a lot of dairy-free recipes call for almond milk) since my brother is allergic to nuts.

You'll need:

1 1/3 c. light coconut milk
1 c. pumpkin puree
3/4 c. maple syrup
3 eggs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. pink Himalayan sea salt

Preheat the oven to 325'. On the stove heat the coconut milk over low heat until small bubbles form along the edges. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and maple syrup. Then once the milk is heated, whisk it into the egg/syrup mixture one tablespoon at a time.

In a separate bowl, whisk the pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and salt. Then whisk that mixture into the egg/syrup/milk mixture. Pour into a glass baking dish, and then put that dish into a slightly larger baking dish. Fill the outer dish with hot water until it goes halfway up the edge of the inner baking dish. Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until the top is mostly set. At the 1 hour mark I started checking on mine every 10 minutes just to make sure it was setting properly.

Remove the inner baking dish from the outer baking dish and cool on a wire rack until the pan is room temperature. Then refrigerate until ready to serve!



Hazelnut Wild Rice Salad
Several years ago my family had a similar salad from the prepared foods section at Whole Foods and we fell head over heels with it! Of course that meant that every time we went back afterwards they never seemed to have it again. Luckily I kept the ingredients list from our first order and recreated it at home! The vinaigrette was adapted from this recipe. This makes a pretty hefty batch of rice so you might want to halve it if you're not feeding a lot of people.

For the rice you'll need:

18 oz. Lundberg Farms Whole Grain & Wild Blend Brown Rice
(other wild rice will do, but this is my absolute favorite!)
1 1/2 c. dried cranberries
1 1/2 c. diced red peppers
1 1/2 c. chopped hazelnuts
1 1/2 c. chopped spinach
1 1/2 c. sugar free dried pineapple, diced

For the vinaigrette you'll need:

1/3 c. chopped hazelnuts
1 shallot (finely chopped)
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
a pinch of allspice
3/4 tsp. pink Himalayan sea salt
2 tsp. maple syrup
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 c. walnut oil

Cook your rice, and then combine all of the rice ingredients listed. For the vinaigrette, sauté the chopped hazelnuts, shallot, and extra virgin olive oil. Then whisk with the remaining ingredients. Toss with the rice and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.



I hope everyone has a wonderful and healthy Thanksgiving today! 💞

recipe: dark chocolate maple truffles

I promised you guys this recipe a couple weeks ago and here it is! These are sugar free, nut free, and gluten free plus the dark chocolate has anti-inflammatory properties. But maybe the most important thing is that they are absolutely delicious!! I made this batch last night and then experienced the most excruciating test of willpower when I had to leave them untouched in the refrigerator overnight so that I could take photos of them this morning. Needless to say, as soon as these pictures were in the can the candy was not long for this world. lol!



You'll need:
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
4 tbsp. unrefined coconut oil, melted
3 1/2 tbsp. maple syrup (start with 2 tbsp and then add more to taste)
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (optional)
pink Himalayan sea salt (optional)

Stir to combine the melted coconut oil, dark cocoa powder, and maple syrup. I started with a couple tablespoons and then added more until it was the perfect amount of sweetness for me. Keep stirring vigorously until it starts to thicken, and then refrigerate the mixture for 10 minutes.

Once it's hardened a bit, take the mixture out of the fridge and use a melon baller to scoop small bite-sized balls of chocolate. Roll with your hands to form a circle. Now here is where it varies based on what type of chocolate you want to make. I made salted chocolates and coconut chocolates.

- For plain chocolates, just place the balls on a dish and refrigerate.
- For salted chocolates, place balls on a dish and then sprinkle with salt.
- For coconut chocolates, roll the balls in coconut flakes first.

You can also roll the chocolates in sprinkles or chopped nuts instead. Or if you're not going sugar-free they'd be scrumptious rolled in powdered sugar. I personally want to try a batch rolled in chopped walnuts (and maybe sub the maple syrup for honey? hmm..)

This batch should yield approximately 2 dozen chocolates, and they're best kept in the refrigerator so that the coconut oil doesn't melt. When I served them at my Halloween party they held up just fine on the buffet table after being refrigerated for 24 hours straight.

Enjoy!! :)

recipe: three variations of vegan pesto!

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I've been trying to eat a healthier diet the last several weeks and one thing that has been making all those healthy meals taste amazing is homemade vegan pesto. I've been trying a bunch of different varieties, with different nuts, seeds, and greens. It's so fun to play around with this recipe!

I use this pesto in so many different ways -- on wraps or sandwiches as a spread, diluted with a little extra virgin olive oil as a salad dressing, or (my favorite!) with zucchini noodles and roasted vegetables for dinner. Yum!! I usually use about 1-2 tablespoons at a time. It's packed with flavor and you really don't need all that much to make a difference.

Each batch that I make comes from the following recipe --



In a blender combine:

1/2 cup nuts or seeds
1/2 cup vegetable broth (add more if it's too thick)
a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
6 cloves of garlic
a pinch of sea salt
1 cup of greens (herbs or vegetables)

My favorite combinations are:

Sunflower seed - Parsley pesto (perfect if you have nut allergies!)
Basil - Walnut pesto (my favorite!)
Roasted asparagus - Cashew pesto

For the roasted asparagus pesto, just cook asparagus tips on 400' for 20 minutes and then wait until it's cooled to room temperature before adding it to your blender.

And that's it! It's SO easy to make this, and it's so healthy! (And so yummy!!)

recipe: eggs verde

Whenever I go to Hollywood, there is one thing that I look forward to the most. It's not the Hollywood sign, the movies, the chance celebrity sighting, the proximity to Disneyland, no. It's the Eggs Verde that I get at Mel's Drive In. I was going out there for the TCM Film Festival every spring, but since I'm not planning on returning I figured I better try to make my own version of this dish at home. It's either that or pay for a plane ticket to LA *just* for this restaurant (which I would 100% do if I could afford it, lol!!) or cook at home.

And this was so simple to whip up! I just fried a couple of eggs and put them on a bed of kale, then topped it with chopped tomatoes, corn, and fresh parsley. Add some roasted asparagus (400' for 20 minutes) and voila! This tasted so fresh and healthy and it's so filling. At Mel's they poach the eggs, use arugula instead of kale, and the corn mixture is more like salsa than just fresh vegetables. But this was so easy to whip up, and I made so much corn and asparagus that I had enough for leftovers the next day. I just had to make the eggs, and chop up some tomatoes!



This is sort of unrelated, but I was meeting with a career counselor this summer and for this one exercise she showed me a couple of recipes and asked me to choose the one that stood out to me. They were all for the same dish, but one was spelled out with very precise instructions in a numbered list, one was more casual but it still included specific measurements and times, and the last one (the one that I went for) was more like a conversation about a recipe. It reminded me of the recipes I grew up with, the kind that my mom and grandmom have written down. Stuff like "combine salt, flour, water. Bake." lol! Recipes that require eyeballing it, and just trusting your own instincts. Obviously those recipes don't really work for more science-y foods like cookies or cakes, but when you're throwing together an egg dish or biscuits or pasta sauce it can be fun to wing it!

Anyway, my whole point is that after I got home and was looking over the paperwork she gave me, I realized that the recipe reminded me a lot of the ones I've written here. I don't know if I've ever actually typed out a numbered list of steps. It's usually casual and leaves room for tweaking. Sometimes I still get messages from people telling me that they have tried my chickpea and tomato dish (still one of my favorites!) or my cranberry walnut pasta and it makes me so happy! Not just that I've helped you find a meal that you like, but because it meant my instructions were somewhat follow-able! ha!

recipe: rice and red peppers

Like I've said on basically every "recipe" post here -- I'm REALLY lazy about cooking, so my recipes are almost always as easy as throwing a few things in a frying pan and heating it up. This has been one of my go-to dishes lately. I got a really fantastic tomato basil dressing at a roadside farm stand nearby that makes this perfect, but store-bought would be good too (or your own local dressing, or just whatever is currently in your fridge, going with the whole lazy theme here.)

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen brown rice, heated up
2 roasted red peppers, diced
1 can of chick peas, rinsed
a drizzle of dressing
a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
chopped garlic

I just heat up the olive oil in a frying pan and then add the garlic until it's sizzling a bit. Then I add the rice, chick peas, red peppers and dressing and keep on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the rice and chick peas have gotten a bit crunchy. And that's it! It seriously takes like 10 minutes tops but you feel like you're eating an actual meal instead of a quick snack! Serves 2-3, or 1 if you're really really hungry.

black sesame ice cream

Last year I tried black sesame frozen yogurt at Yogurtland and it was one of the best flavors EVER. It might seem kind of insane if you're used to chocolate and vanilla (or in my case, strawberry and coconut) but the only crazy thing about it is how good it tastes. It was unexpectedly amazing, and (hooray!) my at-home version came out just as fantastic! :D

I found a few recipes online, but they were all either too fatty or required equipment I didn't have (like a coffee grinder) so I made some adaptions, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best. Luckily the ice cream gods were in my favor and it's pretty perfect.

I used this recipe, with the following alterations:

- 2% milk instead of whole milk
- 3 egg yolks instead of 6 egg yolks
- add 1 tsp. vanilla in step 2

I also used a food processor to grind the seeds, since I don't have a coffee grinder. I'm not sure how fine the sesame powder gets with the grinder but mine still had little bits of sesame seed that ended up making some pretty speckles in the finished ice cream. The ice cream was still incredibly rich and creamy without the added fat from the eggs and whole milk. I'd love to keep testing different ingredients to find the perfect low-fat base for all of my ice cream experiments! :)

do-again recipes

As part of my resolution this year to cook more of my meals at home I've been on a recipe-finding-frenzy. I have oodles of delicious meals pinned to my "yum" board on pinterest, and so far I've tried a few to varying degrees of success.

I bought myself a crock pot with some of my Christmas money and it's made cooking SO much easier. You just plop your ingredients in the pot and a few hours later you have a delectable, flavorful meal that gives the impression you were standing stove-side all day long. The first recipe I tried with my crock pot was this one for coconut chickpea curry from Tasty Yummies. In my family when a first-time recipe is a roaring success we classify it as "do-again," as in "DEFINITELY MAKE THIS AGAIN!!" This was a total do-again. It was chock-full of flavor and incredibly hearty. I'm not going to lie, I went back for THIRDS. THIRDS! I've cooked this one twice so far and the second time I served it over jasmine rice which somehow made it EVEN better. I definitely recommend it.

Another do-again recipe was this one from Love & Lemons for sweet potato tahini crostini. When I was adding the ingredients into my food processor I was a little skeptical.. maple syrup, chick peas and garlic? But it was scrumptious! I left out the ricotta since I don't eat cheese (please, please don't attack me!) It even got my dad's seal of approval -- and that's saying something, he's a super picky eater!

I also tried this crock pot recipe for quinoa with vegetables which was... okay. I added dry black beans at the beginning and they really overpowered the flavors (not to mention tinted everything a shade of greyish brown which, needless to say, wasn't very appetizing) I might try it again sometime, but adding rinsed canned chickpeas at the end instead.

Does anyone have a favorite vegetarian crock pot recipe? I'm so excited about finding new favorite dishes to make with it -- it's just so simple to use and produces such mouth-watering results :)

ps. While I'm on the subject of food... if anyone in the Princeton area has been missing Old World Pizza as much as I have (A LOT!) you need to check out Augustine's in Hamilton. The owner used to work at Old World Pizza and is using the same recipe! I was dubious at first but I ordered a pie last night and my taste buds were crying tears of joy -- it's the same pizza! I don't know if anything else in 2014 will top the happiness I felt last night (don't worry, I'm exaggerating. A little.)

recipe: mashed potato pasta sauce

Let's just get this out of the way first -- I really love carbs. I also love my green veggies and fruits and try to eat as healthily as possible but I'm not one to shy away from a meal that includes multiple carbohydrates all living happily together in one single dish.

Initially I wanted to make a creamy tomato sauce without using any dairy to make it creamy, and came up with the idea to put a mashed potato in my sauce. It ended up making it more hearty than creamy but it was SO good, I definitely filed this in my "do-again" file.

You need: 1 crate of cherry tomatoes, a few tbsp. olive oil, 4 cloves fresh garlic (minced), 1 tbsp. olivio (or butter), some parsley, one baked potato (mashed), pasta

While your pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil on low heat and add the minced garlic. Cut up the tomatoes into slices (I cut about three slices per tomato) and add them to the pot with the olivio. Let it all simmer on a low heat until the juices from the tomatoes are starting to fill up the pot. Then add the parsley and the potato and stir until it's all well blended. Serve over the pasta and eat up! :)

One of my personal resolutions this year is to cook more often instead of always eating out or eating pre-packaged foods and so far I'm doing really good! I've been having waffles or eggs for breakfast every morning and cooking lunch or dinner every day. Yesterday I used the leftover pasta from this dish (I had some extra that I tossed with olive oil & put in the fridge) and combined it with butter beans and green beans in a skillet, and it was so yummy!

recipe: pumpkin pie ice cream

Last weekend I got a text from Yogurtland saying they had a new pumpkin pie flavor of frozen yogurt and I was dying to try it! I went on Wednesday and the cashier told me the flavor was already gone for the season (what?!) so, heartbroken, I went to the grocery store to see if they had any. They didn't! Then I remembered that I got my dad an ice cream maker for his birthday this spring and we had yet to try it out.

I did a quick google search on my phone but couldn't find any recipes that used real pumpkin pie. Most have pumpkin filling and graham cracker crumbs or something like that, but I wanted actual pie in my ice cream. So I decided to just wing it and BOY am I glad that I did. I used the milk measurements from a peanut butter ice cream recipe that came with the ice cream machine and then eyeballed the rest. It came out so great I can't wait to try other flavors now! I want to try apple next but my dad is campaigning for garlic (yup, garlic!) We'll see..

Here's my recipe for pumpkin pie ice cream:

1 pumpkin pie, pre-cooked
1 cup fat free half-and-half
2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup brown sugar
red and yellow food coloring (optional)

Cut 1/4 slice of the pie and eat it. If you want to save it for later or give it away that's fine too, but I recommend eating it immediately. Then scoop out the entire center of the pie, including the bottom crust (leaving only the crust edges in the pan) and mash it up in your mixing bowl with a fork. Add brown sugar and mix. Then add the half-and-half and combine with a hand mixer on low speed. Then add the heavy cream and continue mixing on low for about a minute. Cover your bowl and store in the fridge for a couple hours (I left mine in overnight.)

When the batter is cool, add it to your ice cream machine and watch the magic happen! My ice cream maker (this one) is open at the top (I don't know if all of them are? I'm new to this) so I could see the batter transforming into ice cream right before my eyes. It was SO cool! While it was churning I added 3 drops of yellow and 3 drops of red food coloring to make the ice cream a little bit more pumpkin-looking. I was also planning on adding some crumbs from the leftover crust edges a few minutes before the ice cream was done but it ended up getting too thick for me to add anything! I definitely want to try that in my next batch for some added texture.

recipe: late summer salad

First, can we all have a nice hearty chuckle at my pitiful attempt at blogger food photography? One of these days I'm going to take a good food photo. It's going to happen.

Anyway... one of my favorite eat-out foods this summer was the strawberry poppyseed salad at Panera. I ordered mine without chicken or dressing and then added shredded coconut when I got it home. SO good! This afternoon I was craving the salad something awful, but to my utter horror I got this reply when I placed my order: "we're sorry, that salad has been discontinued for the season." Noooooooooooo!!! I reluctantly ordered an iced tea and sulked for a good ten minutes before I realized I could easily whip this up at home.

I used baby spinach, fresh strawberries and blueberries, a rinsed can of mandarin oranges and heaps of shredded coconut. The salad usually came with candied pecans too, but I made this for my whole family and my brother is allergic to nuts, so I left them out this time. Personally I love having that extra crunch so I'll probably be adding some when I go back for leftovers :)



I usually like kind of plain food, so everyone in my family thought it was just Kate being Kate when I said I was serving this without dressing. But I begged them to try it as-is and they all agreed it didn't need anything else. The juices from the fruits add just enough liquid and the coconut gives each bite just the right amount of flavor. If you try it, I'd recommend just giving it a whirl without dressing first -- you can always add it later. I think something like sesame ginger might be interesting though!

It's kind of a pet peeve with me (at least in my own family) that nobody ever wants to try things the way they come. They always have to be adding heaps of salt or cheese or dressing or butter when some foods have absolutely amazing natural flavors that just get buried under all that extra goop. I don't eat everything totally plain (I'll be the first to admit I can be heavy-handed when it comes to garlic!) but I think it's nice to try foods as-is before adding anything extra. You might be surprised at how good something tastes without any assistance from the condiment aisle! ;)

recipe: taco salad

It's time for another installment of "recipe that came about because Kate was lazy."

I've been on a bit of a taco kick lately, but I always seem to face a shortage of taco shells. This problem paired with my unwillingness to drive out and buy shells resulted in this amazing new salad recipe that I can't stop eating. As usual, it's super easy and perfect for lazy people who don't like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, like me!

Just combine a can of dark kidney beans (rinsed), one cucumber (cut into little pieces), two small tomatoes (cut into little pieces) and one pre-cooked ear of corn. Combine with a generous drizzle of flavored olive oil (I used garlic olive oil and it was delicious!!)

I took my last remaining taco shells (and any little broken bits that were stuck at the bottom of the package) and crushed them to make taco croutons. Sprinkle some croutons on top of each serving and you're done! I didn't mix the croutons into the salad because I didn't want them to get soggy while they were sitting in the fridge, but if you're planning on eating the whole salad immediately then, by all means, mix away! :)

I actually normally just make rice and bean tacos (see: laziness) but now that I tried salad-ifying tacos I want to include veggies in them more often!